The arrival in February 1938 of a revolutionary leader from Bengal to preside over the 51st session of the Indian National Congress in Gujarat, the home province of the apostle of non-violence, carried powerful symbolic meaning. It represented the meeting of two generations and the merging of two strands of the anti-colonial movement that had often been at odds with each other. The spectacle of Subhas Chandra Bose being taken in a chariot pulled by 51 white bulls to the Congress venue in the rural setting of Haripura connected agrarian and urban India and evoked an idyllic past beckoning a dynamic future. Gandhi and Bose in earnest conversation on the dais at the plenary session of the Congress warmed the hearts of millions of Indians looking forward to a united nationalist stand against the British Raj. The saint’s holiness had to be complemented by the warrior’s sword, as Aurobindo Ghose had argued three decades ago, in the pursuit of justice and righteousness.
The differences of perspective between Bose and Gandhi were not limited to what each considered legitimate methods of anti-colonial struggle. Bose’s dream of a modern industrial future for free India was at variance with Gandhi’s utopia of a Ramrajya, a kingdom of Ram on earth based on self-governing and largely self-sufficient village communities. Yet it was quite possible that their commonalities in the anti-imperialist effort and a sense of mutual respect and affection would enable them to work together in relative accord.
India’s two men of destiny had first met nearly 17 years ago. After resigning from the Indian Civil Service, Subhas Chandra Bose had set sail for India with an unwavering sense of mission to serve his country’s cause. He landed in Bombay on July 16, 1921 and rushed to see Gandhi the same afternoon. Seven years later, at the open session of the Calcutta Congress, Subhas sponsored an amendment demanding “complete independence” instead of “dominion status” in opposition to Mahatma Gandhi. He simply did not believe that there was any “reasonable chance” of the British granting “dominion status” within twelve months, as was demanded in the main resolution. Gandhi promised that if the year 1929 did not bring dominion home rule, he would himself become an “independence-wallah”.
“I shall probably be elected the president of the Indian National Congress early next year,” Subhas wrote in a private letter on September 9, 1937. Gandhi had clearly broached the subject with him by this time. In late October 1937, the Bose brothers, Sarat and Subhas, were the cynosure of the anti-colonial movement as the top leadership of the Indian National Congress gathered in Calcutta. The entire top floor of Sarat Bose’s home at 1, Woodburn Park, was given over to Mahatma Gandhi and his entourage.
As Congress president, Bose tried hard to work in cooperation with Gandhi. Congress participation in coalition governments in the Muslim-majority provinces, in Bose’s opinion, would strengthen the party in speaking with the British. He spelled out to Gandhi what he saw as the need of the hour in clear terms: “While endeavouring to bring about a coalition ministry in the remaining three provinces, we should lose no time in announcing our decision on the various Hindu-Muslim problems that would have come up for discussion if negotiations had taken place between the Congress and the Muslim League. Simultaneously, we should hold an enquiry into the grievances of the Muslims against the Congress governments. These two steps will help to satisfy reasonable Muslims that we are anxious to understand their complaints and to remedy them as far as humanly possible.”
A proposal to conduct an enquiry into the conduct of Congress ministries in the Hindu-majority provinces was a red rag to the right wing of the party comfortably enjoying the fruits of office. Bose’s approach in addressing the intertwined challenges to the construction of an all-India nationalism presented by affiliations of religious community and linguistic region was significantly different and substantially more generous than that of most others among the Congress leadership.
The democratic verdict of the delegates from the provinces after an unprecedented electoral contest was delivered on January 29, 1939. The final tally showed that Subhas Chandra Bose had emerged victorious by 1,580 votes to the 1,375 votes Gandhi’s choice, Pattabhi Sitaramayya, got. As was to be expected, Bengal had voted decisively for Bose, while Gujarat and Andhra had gone Sitaramayya’s way. Among the major provinces, Bose had carried the United Provinces, Punjab and Assam in the north and Karnataka, Kerala and Tamil Nadu in the south. For the first time in two decades, Gandhi’s authority had been successfully challenged within the Indian National Congress. “It will always be my aim and object,” Subhas promised, “to try and win his confidence for the simple reason that it will be a tragic thing for me if I succeed in winning the confidence of other people but fail to win the confidence of India’s greatest man.”
The right wing of the Congress struck a calculated political blow at Tripuri in their campaign to avenge their defeat in the presidential election. They brought a resolution moved by Govind Ballabh Pant that “the Congress executive should command [Gandhiji’s] implicit confidence and requests the president to nominate the Working Committee in accordance with the wishes of Gandhiji”. Once it was clear that an impasse had been reached, Bose submitted his resignation as Congress president “in an entirely helpful spirit” at the meeting of the All India Congress Committee in Calcutta on April 29, 1939. Bose’s conduct won the approbation of no less a figure than Rabindranath Tagore, for the dignity Subhas had displayed.
During the war crisis that erupted in September 1939, the rest of the Congress leadership behaved like His Majesty’s Opposition; having shed all inhibitions of colonial subjecthood, Bose alone stood forth as His Majesty’s Opponent. While Subhas was kept under close police watch in his home at 38/2 Elgin Road following his hunger-strike, not even the letters he exchanged with Mahatma Gandhi could evade the prying eyes of the colonial state. On December 23, 1940, Bose wrote to Gandhi offering his unconditional support to any movement the Mahatma might lead in the cause of India’s independence. “You are irrepressible, whether ill or well,” Bapu wrote to his rebellious son on December 29, 1940. “Do get well before going in for fireworks.” On January 3, 1941, the government censors opened and read this letter. Little did they know that the rebel had already completed preparations for his fireworks and was simply waiting for the right moment to light the fuse. On the night of January 16-17, 1941, Subhas escaped from Calcutta driven in a German-made Wanderer car by his young nephew Sisir.
